From Frank Brady, who wrote one of the best-selling books on Bobby Fischer of all time and who was himself a friend of Fischer’s, comes an impressively researched biography that for the first time completely captures the remarkable arc of Bobby Fischer’s life. When Bobby Fischer passed away in January 2008, he left behind a confounding legacy. Everyone knew the basics of his life—he began as a brilliant youngster, then became the pride of American chess, then took a sharp turn, struggling with paranoia and mental illness. But nobody truly understood him.

Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match

In the summer of 1972, with a presidential crisis stirring in the United States and the cold war at a pivotal point, two men, the Soviet world chess champion Boris Spassky and his American challenger Bobby Fischer, met in the most notorious chess match of all time. Their showdown in Reykjavik, Iceland, held the world spellbound for two months with reports of psychological warfare, ultimatums, political intrigue, cliffhangers, and farce to rival a Marx Brothers film.

How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

How Life Imitates Chess is a primer on how to think, make decisions, prepare strategies, and anticipate the future. Kasparov has distilled the lessons he learned over a lifetime as a chess grandmaster to cover the practical side - tactics, strategy, preparation, as well as the subtler, more human arts of using memory, intuition, and imagination.

Chess: From Beginner to Pro

In Chess: From Beginner to Pro, author Mike Valley gives the listener everything he or she needs to know about the game: history, basic rules, and advanced strategies. Before long, even those who are new to the game will be gleefully calling "Check Mate" to their defeated foes.

One Move at a Time: How to Play and Win at Chess…and Life

Learn to play chess the fun and easy way while you learn what it takes to be successful in life. One Move at a Time reveals 20 proven ways to succeed at the game of kings - or at anything else you desire. It uses kid- and teen - friendly language to teach you fun, simple ways to memorize how the game is set up and how the pieces move; the "smart start" that gains you a quick advantage from your first few moves; seven strategies to turn beginning players into fast winners; and how to go for "the big win".

Searching for Bobby Fischer

Searching for Bobby Fischer is the story of Fred Waitzkin and his son, from the moment six-year-old Josh first sits down at a chessboard until he competes for the national championship. Drawn into the insular, international network of chess, they must also navigate the difficult waters of their own relationship. All the while, Waitzkin searches for the elusive Bobby Fischer, whose myth still dominates the chess world and profoundly affects Waitzkin’s dreams for his son.

Every Move Must Have a Purpose: Strategies from Chess for Business and Life

Fluid and elegant, yet rigorous and rule-bound, chess is a game that seduces, confounds, and hooks. Now, world-renowned chess master and Fortune 500 business consultant Bruce Pandolfini shows readers how chess principles can be simply and logically applied to any business or life situation. No specific chess knowledge is needed, but after reading Every Move Must Have a Purpose, you will share with the most astute chess players the secret to thinking on your feet.

The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl

Phiona Mutesi sleeps in a decrepit shack with her mother and four siblings and struggles to find a single meal each day. Phiona Mutesi is also one of the best chess players in the world. One day in 2005, while searching for food, nine-year-old Phiona followed her brother to a dusty veranda where she met Robert Katende, another child of the Ugandan slums, who works for an American organization that offers relief and religion through sports. Robert introduced Phiona to the game of chess and soon recognized her immense talent.

Improve Your Chess: Become a Chess Champion with Subliminal Messages

Improve Your Chess - Become a Chess Champion with Subliminal Messages. Seven powerful recordings, each 10 minutes long, containing thousands of embedded subliminal messages designed to help you reach your goal. This recording contains the following subliminal affirmations: I am an intuitive chess player; I always make the right moves; my strategy is always well considered; I am a confident chess player; I always think ahead and plan my game; people admire my chess playing skills.

Lisa: A Chess Novel

The chess pieces knew how they moved. They knew what they wanted, too. It wasn't like school, where kids pretended they were masters of the teachers' game. The adults didn't know anything anyway. The real world was a big push to nothing. But Lisa escaped from all that. She found Igor Ivanov. He taught her how to play.

The Art of Human Chess: A Study Guide to Winning

The Art of Human Chess: A Study Guide to Winning is a masterpiece. Its intended purpose is to teach the science of winning, giving the ordinary person on the streets and the person fresh out of college a chance to compete with the ruthless sharks in today's marketplace.

Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped

The ascension of Vladimir Putin - a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB - to the presidency of Russia in 1999 should have been a signal that the country was headed away from democracy. Yet in the intervening years - as America and the world's other leading powers have continued to appease him - Putin has grown into not only a dictator but a global threat. With his vast resources and nuclear weapons, Putin is at the center of a worldwide assault on political liberty.

Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia

In Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia, Garrels crafts an intimate portrait of the nation's heartland. We meet ostentatious mafiosos, upwardly mobile professionals, impassioned activists, scheming taxi drivers with dark secrets, and beleaguered steel workers. We discover surprising subcultures, like the LGBT residents of Chelyablinsk who bravely endure an upsurge in homophobia fueled by Putin's rhetoric of Russian "moral superiority" yet still nurture a vibrant if clandestine community of their own.

A Spy's Guide to Thinking

In this 45-minute listen, a former spy introduces two simple tools for thinking. The first describes how we think. The second helps us think ahead. They are the essential tools for getting things done. The tools are applied to an incident in a subway car in Europe where a spy faces a new enemy. Then, they're reapplied to Saddam Hussein's stockpiling (or not) of weapons of mass destruction.

Lunar Discovery: Discovery Series, Book 1

What lies on the dark side of the moon could change the course of humanity forever. When a Chinese rover discovers an alien technology on the dark side of the moon, it is up to Richard "Rock" Crandon and his NASA team of scientists and engineers to devise a way to return before the Chinese and Russians. Forced to deal with bureaucratic oversight and a complex team of personalities, Rock Crandon pushes his team to their limits.

The Art of X-Ray Reading: How the Secrets of 25 Great Works of Literature Will Improve Your Writing

Where do writers learn their best moves? They use a technique that Roy Peter Clark calls X-ray reading, a form of reading that lets you penetrate beyond the surface of a text to see how meaning is actually being made. In The Art of X-Ray Reading, Clark invites you to don your X-ray reading glasses and join him on a guided tour through some of the most exquisite and masterful literary works of all time, from The Great Gatsby to Lolita to The Bluest Eye and many more.

The Science of Energy: Resources and Power Explained

To better put into perspective the various issues surrounding energy in the 21st century, you need to understand the essential science behind how energy works. And you need a reliable source whose focus is on giving you the facts you need to form your own educated opinions.

The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

The Art of Learning takes listeners through Waitzkin's unique journey to excellence. He explains in clear detail how a well-thought-out, principled approach to learning is what separates success from failure. Waitzkin believes that achievement, even at the championship level, is a function of a lifestyle that fuels a creative, resilient growth process.

Publisher's Summary

Why has one game, alone among the thousands of games invented and played throughout human history, not only survived but thrived within every culture it has touched? What is it about its 32 figurative pieces, moving about its 64 black and white squares according to very simple rules, that has captivated people for nearly 1,500 years? Why has it driven some of its greatest players into paranoia and madness, and yet is hailed as a remarkably powerful intellectual tool?

Nearly everyone has played chess at some point in their lives. Its rules and pieces have served as a metaphor for society, influencing military strategy, mathematics, artificial intelligence, and literature and the arts. It has been condemned as the devil's game by popes, rabbis, and imams, and lauded as a guide to proper living by other popes, rabbis, and imams. Marcel Duchamp was so absorbed in the game that he ignored his wife on their honeymoon. Caliph Muhammad al-Amin lost his throne (and his head) trying to checkmate a courtier. Ben Franklin used the game as a cover for secret diplomacy.

In his wide-ranging and ever-fascinating examination of chess, David Shenk gleefully unearths the hidden history of a game that seems so simple yet contains infinity. From its invention somewhere in India around 500 A.D., to its enthusiastic adoption by the Persians and its spread by Islamic warriors, to its remarkable use as a moral guide in the Middle Ages and its political utility in the Enlightenment, to its crucial importance in the birth of cognitive science and its key role in the aesthetic of modernism in 20th century art, to its 21st century importance in the development of artificial intelligence and use as a teaching tool in inner-city America, chess has been a remarkably omnipresent factor in the development of civilization.

if you love chess, you will love this book. the book's layout weaves together chapters addressing the moves in the casual (e.g., non-tournament) 1851 match between adolf anderssen and lionel kieseritzky (later dubbed "the immortal game") with chapters about the history of chess.

the immortal game's annotations are all over the internet, but to hear the match described in audiobook form brought it to life in a way that dry annotations cannot.

how can you not enjoy a match where someone gives up a bishop *both* rooks AND the queen to earn checkmate against an opponent who has only lost three measly pawns??

ok, ok...you will probably want to have a passing interest in chess before trying this book, but if you do have such an interest, listen in to one of the greatest chess stories out there.

This book was indeed a delightful surprise. Not the dry recitation of moves or tactics, but rather a fun overview of the history and impact of the game on the world. There are some specific recitations of a specific historic game or two, but after evey few moves, the narrative continues. Ben Franklin, Freud, Queen Isabella, and many more are all connected by this tale.

This book was truly remarkable, and the narration was spot-on. I would highly reccomend it to any chess player not only as a guide to where we came from, but as a tool to rejuvinate your love of the game.

The author presents a great potted history of chess orientated around the Immortal Game - a game which occurred between the wars. I found the book great to listen to and very informative.
I would recommend it to anyone who has a general interest in chess.

Great book. This is not an instructional chess book as most other books on the subject. This book is a more about the history of the game and its evolution. A great read for those who enjoy the game and want to know a little bit more about it. The immortal game interludes will facinate any chess player. Hope this helps, enjoy.

Be warned, this is a book for anyone interested in chess history and not a book for anyone looking to improve their game play. As an amateur chess player, I really enjoyed it thoroughly and appreciated the authors gradual explanation of chess history and anecdotes, which are clearly aimed at the novice or uninitiated. I also enjoyed the way the book unfolds through the playing of an 'immortal' game of chess. A well written and well produced audio book for anyone interested in the story behind the game.

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